I saw Def Leppard last night in Ottawa. Opening act was Billy Idol. I was sitting WAY up in the nose bleeds, so the sound was not that great.. WAY to much bass.. drowned some of the vocals and rythm guitars, Joe's vocals were a bit dissapointing, could not hit those higher notes and pulled back from the mike a lot on them.. the songs lacked the power that is present on the CDs.. Not that bad of a show..but sound could have been way better..but when you sit that high up it's going to happen. Billy was good.. had better sound than Def.

The first 2 songs were kind of rough.. but once he warmed up his vocals were very good. He did go down to floor level and sing to the little ladies.. got them all exited you know.. he dropped his mike on the stage twice.. does that count ? He was pretty active, running, fist pumping with crooked face look ..

highs for me were white wedding, rebel yell, flesh for fantasy, and a few more... lows were money money.. I've never like that song..

Overall I really enjoyed his show.. and despite sitting 2000 feet up (felt like that anyways) in the arena, his sound was actually not bad..Def on the other hand.. holy smokes, BAAADDDD.. which is to BAAADDD because I do like everything from hysteria and older..

Billy Idol was the first 2 concerts I had ever been to...the Rebel Yell (1984) and Whiplash Smile (1986) tours. Ever since those concerts, I've avoided standing in crowds at all costs because I almost passed out near the front of the stage from heat exhaustion during the Whiplash Smile concert. It's not a good place to be at only 5'2" tall! Funny enough, I've also seen Def Leppard back in the days. I SAT for that concert!

Saw Dave Matthews Band at the Bricktown Ballpark in OKlahoma City last night.

Overall a pretty good show. It was outdoor at a baseball stadium (As you can tell by the venue name) and the stage was in center field.

Our seats were inbetween 1st base and right field, a few rows up from ground level. Sound was pretty good, but the vocals were a little hard to hear at times. Tim Reynolds was there as well, and really jammed out on the guitar a couple of times. The concert lasted a little over 4 hours, and a little over 2.5 hours of that was song after song from DMB.

They had 3 extra speaker stacks hanging from lifts in the infield, pointing for anyone who was sitting around home plate or in the upper decks. now those were LOUD. For the last song we were standing over there (close to the exit) and I had to pop in some ear plugs.

they let several thouasand people onto the outfield itself, so the outfield was nothing but a sea of sweat and madness.

First time seeing DMB and I will def. go to another. Also, the stage setup/visuals were amazing.

Last night we braved the rain to see Cheap Trick, Heart and Journey. I was able to make it all the way through to listen to a few songs from Journey, they head lined, before I had enough of being soak and wet. The new guy has a hell of a voice.

IMO Heart stoled the show. I tell ya they really rocked the house. When they were done, they played after Cheap Trick, I turned to my son and told him if we left now I'd be happy. They were just that good.

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Rick

"A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity." Sigmund Freud

Styx and Boston played this year, with Styx opening. I was looking forward to Boston (even though they were sans Delp) but it was Styx that blew me (and everyone else) away. They were amazingly fun, energetic, right-on with their sound, had incredible lighting, etc... It was a blast.

Two nights ago I had Earth, Wind and Fire and could say all the same things. Amazing talent in that group. It seemed as though all members were great vocalists as well as multi-instrumentalists.

I only have one more this year.. Sugarland. I'm not into Country but they have the #1 album right now, the facility is sold out, and, because they've always had an excellent relationship with the facility's management and owners, they've arranged for me to shoot on stage... a first and essentially unheard of in the industry, unless the photographer is literally working with / touring with the band.